L.A. Unified halts contract for iPads - LA Times: "LA schools Supt. John Deasy suspended future use of a contract with Apple on Monday that was to provide iPads to all students in the nation's second-largest school system amid mounting scrutiny of the $1-billion-plus effort. The suspension comes days after disclosures that the superintendent and his top deputy had especially close ties to executives of Apple, maker of the iPad, and Pearson, the company that is providing the curriculum on the devices. And an internal report that examined the technology effort showed major problems with the process and the implementation."Moving forward, we will no longer utilize our current contract with Apple Inc.," Deasy wrote in a memo sent to the Board of Education on Monday...Under the contract approved just over a year ago, Apple had been expected to provide iPads with Pearson as the subcontractor...."Huawei Is Shaking Up the Smartphone Market - WSJ: "WSJ: Have you ever considered using the Tizen operating system [developed by Samsung and backed by Intel Corp. and others]? Mr. Yu: We have no plans to use Tizen. Some telecom carriers are pushing us to design Tizen phones but I say "no" to them. In the past we had a team to do research on Tizen but I canceled it. We feel Tizen has no chance to be successful. Even for Windows Phone it's difficult to be successful. We have no plans to build our own OS. It's easy to design a new OS, but the problem is building the ecosystem around it."

Speed and Spectators Lead to Twitch, a Gaming NexusNew York TimesThe website has quickly emerged as the go-to destination for watching video games, drawing tens of millions of viewers each month. On Monday, that success led to a huge payday for the company's founders, as Amazon said it had reached a deal to buy ...

BusinessweekIs Apple Prepping a Bigger iPad for 2015?BusinessweekRemember when gadgets used to keep getting smaller? Now they keep getting bigger. Apple (AAPL) is rumored to be bringing out a larger iPhone this fall, and now our colleagues at Bloomberg News are reporting that a larger iPad is in the pipeline, too.

Here’s How Amazon Might Take Over Brick-and-Mortar Retail | Re/code: "Broadly, they said the world’s largest online retailer aims to make it easy for a wider array of brick-and-mortar shops to sell on Amazon while giving Amazon shoppers another way to receive orders on the same day they are purchased. The move would extend Amazon’s reach far beyond the virtual checkout aisle to the real ones in your neighborhood."